Fforest Gather in Cardiganshire is a hot ticket this summer
‘It will be beautiful and super-comfortable,” says Charlie Gladstone of Summer Camp, the event he is starting this July. It will take place in the grounds of Hawarden Estate on the Welsh border, where guests can pitch a tent or plump for glamping. There will be wild swimming and workshops on everything from beekeeping to blacksmithing. Gladstone himself is looking forward to “learning to fly fish from a man who’ll DJ with rare French 45s when he’s finished casting”.
The catch? Glastonbury sold 135,000 tickets last year. Gladstone’s other festival, the Good Life, has whittled its numbers down to 1,000. Yet when Summer Camp opens its doors for three weekends in July, it will host 100 guests at once. “We instinctively felt that our guests wanted something smaller, more intimate,” says Gladstone. “Something that allowed them to connect with speakers and performers and fellow guests in ways that they could n
“I’ve seen it go for twice of what the auction price went for,” said Liquor Max co-owner Hal Rogers. “Most of the price is driven by scarcity. It’s supply and demand. It’s an old, reputable distiller, and we get it in maybe once a year. On the shelf it would go for $600 or $700.”
Maybe part of that high-dollar figure is the price of bragging rights, Rogers said. “A lot of people collect these things. And if they give it as a gift, it might create a bigger bond, and they’d get a bigger thank you.”
The Tourvilles planned to drink it, however. “It’s aged well, with a better aroma and a deeper taste. It’s a sipping bourbon,” said Randy Tourville, adding that they’d try not to think about the price of each sip.